Of Wolves and Burning Suns
by Windy Rein
Summary: PENDING REWRITE. She fell and he burned up a sun to say goodbye. That was the last of a path that'd existed since the beginning of Time.
1. Of Wolves and Burning Suns

**Summary:** She fell and he burned up a sun to say goodbye. That was the last of a path that'd existed since the beginning of Time.**  
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**Pairings:** Implied 11/Rose, Amy/Rory**  
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**Warnings:** AU. Probable OOC.

**Disclaimer:** I do not claim ownership of anything Doctor Who, those things belong to the BBC (and it's all for the better). I do however own Shafry (which has a name that's the result of me _trying_ to translate Gallifrey to Parseltongue. Yes, I'm a dork. No, there's no point behind it).**  
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**A/N:** So, I've been pondering and wondering about posting this for...oh, I dunno, two months? I don't think it's anything even resembling perfect (or in character for that matter) but it's the best I'll get it and now I've finally admitted that to myself. Yes, the implication is "Bad Wolf to the rescue". No, I'm not in denial...not even one small bit. A~nd I'm gonna stop myself before I start getting even more off-topic and rambling.

Though, I've got one question (that'll probably end up insulting at least half of those who've read my fics); why the _hell_ do you put a fic marked as COMPLETE in your _story_ alerts?

...

Anyways, allons-y, geronimo and all that jazz. :D

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**Of Wolves and Burning Suns**

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"We're not lost. We're locationally challenged." (John M. Ford)

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She fell and he burned up a sun to say goodbye. A sun, a star, a bringer of life destroyed before its time. But there was a small ball of gas and metals and what some call rock that should've gotten life from that star and now didn't get it. This ball was nothing but a child in the eyes of the Universe…no, it was even less, maybe a barely formed foetus. It wasn't anything special and it would've never been anything special, if not for her fall.

And so, time passed…and passed…and passed.

The Universe started, let's say feel for the simplicity of it, like something was amiss. That something that should've been hadn't been and soon after a song started, just a _tiny_ thread of music, a few notes at most. And so it came to pass that, that small, insignificant ball of gases and metals became a moon. A moon without a planet, without even a star that would've shared its light, and that moon was the last of a path that had existed since the beginning of Time.

The moon would be named Shafry (which translated to crystal in those languages that actually had the word) for the beautiful, completely transparent glass-like metal that covered its surface. The problem with Shafry was that no-one could land on it; actually no-one could even get closer than fifty kilometres without all their instruments getting fried.

The Doctor wouldn't learn of the moon's existence until the TARDIS finally got sick of him gallivanting around the Universe after she got rid of a homicidal, sentient planet for him, and decided to land the man and the Ponds on the moon.

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The TARDIS' landing was a bit rougher than usual but still nothing like the worst ones the Doctor remembered. Amy and Rory though almost tumbled down a set of stairs in the control room. Always made him wonder had there been something special about Rose and Jack, they hadn't fallen once after the first couple of trips.

"So, where's this then, Doctor?" and of course it was Amy, the always curious Amelia.

"I have absolutely no idea but the TARDIS brought us here for a reason." The Doctor explained while dancing around the console checking reading after reading. "But that's not...I mean, it couldn't be...this wasn't here then. How could it be?" the Doctor's rambling didn't make any sense to either human.

"Doctor," Rory, it seemed, had also gotten curious, "where are we?"

"What?" he seemed like his thoughts were a hundred light-years away "Oh, a lovely little moon by the name of Shafry. Entirely made up of a metal that looks almost like crystal on Earth." he was clearly reading from the monitor in front of him.

"But," and he continued talking to himself, "why would you bring me here? Why this point in the whole of the Universe? WHY?" he ended with a scream at the TARDIS.

There was a beep and a dot lit up on the screen.

"Doctor, what is that?" Rory was pointing at the dot which was blinking irregularly. The Doctor gave the screen a good slap on the side and nothing changed.

"Wait," Amy stared at the dot with a concentrated expression on her face, "Doctor, is there pen and paper somewhere?" The Doctor searched his pockets for a moment and dug out a receipt and a red crayon.

There was silence for a few minutes as Amy just looked at the screen and scribbled on the receipt with the crayon. After a while she turned to the two men with a triumphant look. "That's Morse code. It's a message in Morse code. But I don't know what it means."

"What does it say?" The Doctor seemed on edge. "Amy, what's it say?"

"Does "Bad Wolf" mean anything to you?"

The Doctor froze for a moment before a thousand-mega-watt smile lit up his face and he ran for the insides of the TARDIS with a whoop of joy, or possibly excitement, leaving the Ponds staring.

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Miles and miles away to a North-that-wasn't inside what looked like a mountain of ice, a golden figure breathed her first breath and with it one word.

"Doctor."

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**A/N:** No, I have no idea why the Doctor suddenly couldn't understand Morse code -.-' Yes, I know more about Shafry than is shown here.

Reviews are loved and adored and cherished and will make sure that I have the confidence to write more DW (if that's what you want, that is). :)

Flames will be used to start fires.


	2. Concerning Fear and Wolves

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own anything Doctor Who, especially not the few lines I've stolen (hopefully got them right, I couldn't be bothered to actually watch the episodes again). The Brilliance and all of its dialogue belong to the BBC. I do though still own Shafry, so no stealing that!

**Warnings:** Everything from the first chapter. Bad dialogue. Over-zealous use of italics. Also, the Doctor's a bit more bipolar here than usual ^^'

Lots of notes/ramblings here but only **the River-thing's important** storywise, though.

**River-related note/warning:** When I first saw River in the Silence in the Library, I disliked her. Then in Forest of the Dead, I hated her. _But_, then came The Time of Angels and I sort of started liking her more and more with every episode...until Let's Kill Hitler, where she went all fluffy in the end and I just went back to disliking her. My point is that...I don't think we'll see all that much (if any) of her in this fic, except if she's mentioned.

**A/N:** Lookie, lookie, lookie, what I found! The muse for this story! When I posted _Of Wolves and Burning Suns_ I held the firm belief that this chapter was dead and buried at least 9 ft under. Then, umm...this is gonna sound so lame...I got reviews!

But yeah, try and enjoy :D

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**Dedicated **to **Lumendea** and **sunraye36** for making me think this might actually grow up to be something with actual plot...though I'm still not 100% sure :D

And thanks to **MaryMatthesen** for answering the question :)

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**Concerning Fear and Wolves  
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"Have you ever dealt with people who have lost everything in an hour? In the morning…You leave the house where your wife, your children, your parents live. You return to find only a smoking pit. Something in you snaps - to a certain extent you stop being human. You have no need for money or glory, revenge is your only joy. And because you no longer cling to life, Death avoids you, the bullets fly past. You become a WOLF..." (Russian General Aleksander Lebed, Veteran of Afghanistan)

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"Doctor, what does it mean?" Amy hadn't seen him like this before, "Doctor!"

The Doctor's head popped up from under the console. "There was a time, Amelia, that those words stroke fear into the hearts of monsters. Those words toppled a false god and saved billions of lives." Amy and Rory were staring at him with dumbfounded looks and the Doctor smiled fondly at some memory, "Those words are the reason I stand here now." he shook his head and jumped up in front of them.

(of course he noticed the shock, it was there! for rassilon's sake. all shocking and shocked and _whatthehelldidhejustsay?_)

"Now then, shall we go see who's playing with powers they understand nothing of?" maybe the manic grin was a bit overboard.

_...I can see everything...all that is...all that was...all that ever could be..._

The Doctor's face set in grim determination. What had she done?

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Amy was cold, confused and irritated. (1)

The Doctor wasn't helping any of this with his stubborn silence and refusal to stop or even explain anything to them. And this planet (moon, the Doctor had said) was weird, for the lack of a more appropriate word, and not weird in the usual "oh those are the two purple suns"-sense. It seemed to throw her sense of direction all the time and she wasn't even sure how long they'd been walking. Had they actually moved anywhere?

She looked back in the direction of the TARDIS and was surprised to note she could barely see the ship in the distance.

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The Doctor's mind was awhirl with questions and theories and memories and even more questions. One thing, though, stood out.

_I made my choice and I'm never gonna leave you!_

Had she found a way back? What had she done to get here? Was it all something the Bad Wolf had planned from the very beginning? What of the metacrisis? And how in the world was he going to explain this to Amy and Rory?

(did rose know about river? and what river was to him?)

So many questions he hadn't answers for. He didn't like it one bit.

(don't think about them, just don't think about them and keep them in a neat box locked away at the back of your mind and **don't**_think_ about _**them**_)

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Static like on an old TV.

"_i consent and gladly give"_

Sudden cloud of fog.

_her mother was crying and happy_

Even more static.

"_i'm sorry missis noble"_

A deep cry_howl_ from the depths of her soul.

"_TONY!"_

There was something stirring inside her.

"_you ruined our plans, girl, more than once"_

She felt something cold and wet nudging her.

"_you will watch them die"_

And she burned.

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The sudden noise that penetrated the abnormally silent atmosphere send chills down their spines.

"What was that?" Amy sounded jumpy.

The Doctor seemed to have frozen where he stood...and then it came again.

"Doctor, was that...a howl?" Rory (bless his good, rational heart) this time. He was holding Amy's hand while Amy looked like she was ready to bolt at the first sign of life besides them.

"Yes, it was and that means that either we're getting close or this moon isn't quite as uninhabited as I thought." the Doctor actually sounded excited at the prospect.

It was then that the sky turned golden.

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(1) If anyone can give me a synonym for irritated that starts with c, I'll...probably throttle you 'cause I'm dense enough to not have thought of it -.-

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**A/N:** Also, if you're expecting this to pop-up at Teaspoon... I'm throwing a tantrum at them -.-' Will get over it at some point. :D

_**REVIEWS are love and hugs and all those cuddly things,**_** but it also seems they feed my muse, which would make them bloody and dead things filled with Time. ^^'** Go figure.


	3. Interlude

**A/N:** I'm sorry for taking an eternity. Here's a little something to tide you over until I find my will to write (school's killed it & NaNo's ate my soul) and manage to wrestle chapter 3 into submission...or at least as much submission as is possible with anything that has Bad Wolf in it.

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**On Deep Breaths and Consideration – a pause for an interlude**

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"A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience." (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

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Take a deep breath, a step back and consider the situation.

The woman you love more than any other has (once again) returned to you through_over_under galaxies and Universes. She has become what no-one else has been able to.

(It was just a legend, wasn't it? But...it fit you and her perfectly)

She is a Child of Time where all the others were that only by association. They were just given that title by a madman.

But she... She burned like the Heart of Time in your senses. She shone brighter than any of your kin had. She wasn't wrong, wasn't like the sudden island that waters have to go 'round. She _was_ the river. She flowed with Time, almost over the brim. She was the first and the last. She was the only one. She is the only one. She would be the only one.

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He denied it all.

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**A/N: ***clears throat awkwardly* There might be a prophecy-ish legend but it might also exist only to amuse the Bad Wolf (and the author by default)

P.S. I have no idea how it goes...yet at least.


	4. About Facing Your FearsLiterally

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything Doctor Who, the BBC does. Shafry's mine, though. All of this is purely for recreational reasons.

**Warning(s)**: All from previous chapters. Not being able to fit in the characters actions among their speech, which with the Doctor around is a bit of an issue. ^^' Also, I seem to have trouble sticking to just one Doctor's speech-patterns (yes, that's a ridiculously obvious Ten-line somewhere there). Amy is inexcusably OOC (I'm thinking early-Martha-like at times). Partially written in what passes for severe sleep deprivation for me (yes, I'm looking at you, pink bananas).

(also, I think the quotes are getting farther and farther from the point the chapter is trying to make xD But that might just be me)

**A/N:** I could keep editing this and adding pieces for forever... So, in the interests of me holding onto my audience for a while longer and the amount of hair not on the floor or messed beyond measure, I'm posting this.

Don't ask. I have no idea. Especially about the italics. You'd have to ask my muse. I heard from her...last week? (before that was 'round the time I posted the interlude) And even then she only gave me that last sentence. So, you can just blame everything in between the nitrogen-thing and that last sentence on me. My muse had nothing to do with that.

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**About Facing Your Fears...Literally**

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"If you are afraid of wolves, keep out of the woods." (Josef V. Stalin)

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It took a while but they (meaning the Doctor) managed to pinpoint the direction the light had originated from before it spread to burn throughout the sky.

The Doctor explained the sonic was of no use since the energy came from the Time Vortex (which the sonic didn't have a setting for) and on top of that Shafry was filled with this particular type of Vortex energy. He never explained why that was, or what he meant by "particular type".

Amy was just glad they had a direction to go to instead of the Doctor just spinning in a circle trying to find the source of the burning light, though she wasn't sure if she really wanted to find this Bad Wolf. It didn't sound like anything good could come of it like the Doctor had made it seem.

(and how did the doctor know it?)

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Wolves...

Amy _hated_ wolves.

No, that was wrong. She was afraid of them and she didn't even know why. She thought it might've had something to do with seeing the wolves at the London Zoo tearing into their food with vicious teeth and a primal need when she was a little girl but then again...there was...a thought...of a memory of a possibility...that maybe...there had been...a bone-chilling howling from the crack in her wall.

And that crack had been the only thing she was afraid of as a kid...before the wolves.

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Her pack had died, destroyed by the sky people with their petty vengeance. _Little menaces who thought to enslave her not-home. Who thought to take her and __**use**__ her._

Her mate, though, he still lived and she was sure he was close. She could smell him in the barely-there air. _He'd changed again. Something darker, not so broken but infinitely more dangerous and daring._

He didn't know. And if it depended on her, he'd never know. Even this dark one wouldn't understand, or would and then never forgive himself. _there'd be pity, so much pitypity__**pity**__ and "i never wanted for you to understand"._

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Some miles away the Doctor was almost running towards where he could hear something very glass-like cracking.

(And wasn't that interesting when there shouldn't be anything for the sound to travel through)

But it was cracking and he'd damn himself to the Void, if he let her awake in here with only that soul-deep ache of losing your family and your home. It had all been in the howl after all. He'd recognize that longing anywhere and anywhen.

That bone-crushing emptiness of being the Last One...although (he smiled bitterly for the slightest moment) she really wasn't, was she... She was unique (and the TARDIS had called her not-sister) and yet she was _so_ painfully human.

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The Doctor stopped suddenly making Amy run into him and Rory almost run into her.

"Doctor?" Rory sounded worried.

"I just realized..." the thought had been floating around since they landed but now it had put on a pink tutu made of bananas and kicked his brain into noticing it "we shouldn't be able to breathe here. Well, you shouldn't."

"What do you _mean_ we shouldn't be able to breathe?" Amy, it seemed, had reached her limit and was well on her way to hysterical.

"Well, you see," the Doctor had had his back to them but now turned to face Amy and Rory and his expression was something close to but not quite afraid, "there's practically no oxygen in this atmosphere, or to be more precise; there's such an infinitely small amount of it that you two humans should've passed out almost the moment you were out the doors of the TARDIS."

"And why wouldn't you have passed out?" He really should've stopped being surprised when Rory asked these sorts of questions.

"I can use nitrogen in emergencies. Plenty of that floating around." The Doctor gave them a grin. (and that, the nitrogen not the grin, should've been an obvious sign he was meant to be here alone _she wouldn't be pleased_)

"So, then how _are_ we still conscious?" Rory asked. Amy looked about ready to murder something if things wouldn't start getting explained.

"Hmm, possibly the TARDIS, possibly the Bad Wolf. You can never really know with those two. It's even possible it's both of them working in tandem."

They'd started walking again at some point during the conversation and had now reached what looked like a veritable mountain made of ice or crystals. _Finally_ was a shared thought.

It took a moment for them to find something that could help them reach their goal, namely an entrance (door, gate, anything) and even then it was blocked.

There was a wolf sitting in their path, in the middle of the doorway and directly in their path. It tilted its head and looked at the Doctor for a long while (Amy almost asked if _this_ was the Bad Wolf _it didn't seem too Bad_) but then it moved its eyes to stare at Amy. The intelligence _feralferalferal__**feral**_ in the gleaming golden eyes seemed almost human and somehow beyond that and Amy was made certain that, yes, the wolf could be _that_ bad. Its eyes swept over Rory without a thought before settling back on the Doctor.

_The Lady awaits her Doctor._ The voice echoed around them.

The wolf turned around and after a few steps looked over its shoulder, clearly a "well, are you coming?". The Doctor was the first to take a step forward and when he was by the wolf's side without becoming a chew toy, Rory and Amy started forward.

The wolf snarled and Amy screamed.

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**A/N:** I do actually realize that I made the Bad Wolf sound a tad Na'vi-like in there. Aaand I think I might've stolen a description from canon or some other fic... o.O

Next chapter _should_ have the reunion...hopefully. If I can get all the plotbunnies clamouring for my attention out of the way and if I'll be able to coax my muse back to me -.-'

(pst. I just got immeasurably terrified when I realized (yes, I'm slow like that) that I'm actually publishing an ongoing fic and I'll have to curb my tendencies towards accidental Mary-Sue-making


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